SuperSimple Recipes
Carole’s Chocolate Cake
and Frosting
From the recipe box of travel writer Carole Terwilliger Meyers.
This recipe was originally called “Lydia Pinkham’s Chocolate Cake,” but I have no idea who she is! I have made this cake so many times and changed the recipe to the extent that I now feel comfortable giving myself credit.
Cake
½ cup (1 cube) butter, soft
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ cup sugar
Beat 2 minutes.
1 egg
2 Tbl. unsweetened cocoa powder
Blend in.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
Dissolve soda in buttermilk. Beat into other mix (it will look curdled).
1½ cup flour
Beat in gradually. Put in greased and floured 9-inch square pan. I like to use a metal pan and to grease it with the residue on the butter wrapper.
350 degrees for 40 minutes.
You can serve the cake right from the pan (very homey), or, when cooled, run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake and then carefully invert it onto a serving plate. When possible, I turn it over holding another plate against it so that the top is the uneven part.
Frosting
This makes about a half-cup more frosting than is needed. You can just slather it all on, or you can perhaps frost some butter cookies, shortbread cookies, or graham crackers.
¼ cup (½ cube) melted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt
Combine.
1½ tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup milk
Add and mix.
1 box powdered sugar
Add quickly, in three parts. Spread on top of cooled cake.
(www.berkeleyandbeyond2.com; copyright Carole Terwilliger Meyers)